Apparently these are two of our coptic church's books. They both seem to me that they fulfill the same purpose. Other than one is used in the Liturgy and the other at the end of the midnight praises, the are very similar. Would you guys please tell me what is the difference between these two books and the origin of their names. Also in most of the tasbehas the defnar is not read. Is it opitonal? and is there any standard introduction for it.
Comments
The Difnar in similar but different. It's more of a hymn that is chanted; paragraphs divided into 4 estichons can be sung in a watos or an adam tune. Since it is chanted, the text concentrates on specific important parts of the story. Also much of it is veneration (or cursing to the heretics).
OUjai
I was told by someone in production that it was to be released by this past september, but it was not done. I would suppose that it is very close to completion.
ReturnOrthodoxy
NO it isn't optional, but is skipped for several reasons: because there is no time with other long chants, no time for the chanting of antiphonarium, sometimes it's read tuneless; or because people don't know the tune at all; or because even synexarium is skipped during the liturgies
OUjai
reading it shouldn't be a problem. but chanting it to me is.......tunes of occasions are just so confusing and many of them are lost.
1. Some don't know what it is.
2. Plenty of churches don't have it.
3. It is wasted, trashed, and torn apart in the area under the lectern.
The Synexarium, on the other hand, is just a plain history of events and is read rather than being chanted.
The Antiphonarium contains an account of the saint's life, directed towards the saint, as imikhail said: like a doxology.
The former is for teaching, the latter is for glorification.
Actually, I'm fairly certain HGBY is almost done. He's got the whole thing on his iPad in English and he busts it out during Tasbeha. I've seen him do this just about every month since this past summer, so I assume he's got most of the months down
the arabic is done, the english is done, working on the coptic and putting it all together.
The Synaxarium is the story of the saint read in church. I have never heard about it being chanted. May be imikhail can enlighten us with some info from older manuscripts. It's as simple as a summarized biography of a person's life or info about an important event.
The Difnar in similar but different. It's more of a hymn that is chanted; paragraphs divided into 4 estichons can be sung in a watos or an adam tune. Since it is chanted, the text concentrates on specific important parts of the story. Also much of it is veneration (or cursing to the heretics).
Perfect answers all of you... just what I needed, but what is an estichon?
Perfect answers all of you... just what I needed, but what is an estichon?
stanza which is like a musical sentence. much of the coptic hymns are arranged into paragraphs, each has 4 stanzas.
[quote author=Copticandproud link=topic=12795.msg150295#msg150295 date=1326330457]
Perfect answers all of you... just what I needed, but what is an estichon?
stanza which is like a musical sentence. much of the coptic hymns are arranged into paragraphs, each has 4 stanzas.
Oh yeah I know what you are talking about. Is it a coptic word?
[quote author=minatasgeel link=topic=12795.msg150297#msg150297 date=1326331139]
[quote author=Copticandproud link=topic=12795.msg150295#msg150295 date=1326330457]
Perfect answers all of you... just what I needed, but what is an estichon?
stanza which is like a musical sentence. much of the coptic hymns are arranged into paragraphs, each has 4 stanzas.
Oh yeah I know what you are talking about. Is it a coptic word?
not sure really.
[quote author=Copticandproud link=topic=12795.msg150301#msg150301 date=1326332606]
[quote author=minatasgeel link=topic=12795.msg150297#msg150297 date=1326331139]
[quote author=Copticandproud link=topic=12795.msg150295#msg150295 date=1326330457]
Perfect answers all of you... just what I needed, but what is an estichon?
stanza which is like a musical sentence. much of the coptic hymns are arranged into paragraphs, each has 4 stanzas.
Oh yeah I know what you are talking about. Is it a coptic word?
not sure really.
It is a Greek word meaning verse.